Preaching Daily - January 22

1 Peter 5:8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour

Today's Preaching Insight...

A Role Model For Prayer

Jesus told His disciples to go from Jerusalem to the remotest parts of the world as His witnesses. If twelve apostles and a hundred or so disciples are going to reach the world, they had better get busy. But, the first thing they do when Jesus ascends back to heaven is lock themselves up in a room, shut themselves off from everything, and pray for ten days for the power of the Holy Spirit. They understood that they needed supernatural power for a superhuman work.

The most important lesson we can ever learn about prayer is that we are absolutely dependent on God. Jesus tells us in John 15, "Apart from me, you can do nothing." The tricky part is that we can do lots of things on our own, but the impact and fruit of our work is "nothing" unless Jesus empowers us. Psalm 132:2 says: "As the eyes of a slave look to the hand of their master . . . so our eyes look to the Lord our God till he shows us mercy." A slave is completely dependent on his master, and that's where we stand in our need for the Lord.

Thurman Thomas was the leading rusher in the AFC in 1991 and helped to lead the Buffalo Bills to the Super Bowl that year. But, on the very first play of the Super Bowl, Thomas wasn't even on the field because he had lost his helmet in the pre-game warm-ups. A football player wouldn't dream of going onto the field without his helmet; and we as Christians shouldn't think of facing life or doing ministry without prayer underlying everything we do.

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Today's Extra...

Illustration: Marriage

According to a column in "Ripley's Believe It or Not," the Tujia people in China have a unique ceremony in which the prospective bride and her wedding party cry every day for a month before the wedding. They do not say if the tears are happy tears or not; but if they are not, we can only wonder how many days they will cry after the wedding. All marriages will experience times of tears. Some will be sad, and some will be happy. Let's hope the majority are happy tears.